Richard Di Natale says the overthrow of capitalism is a ridiculous notion and the Greens’ policy platform has been established through a democratic grassroots process.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, has hit back at a new hard left group within his party’s rank and file with a stated aim of bringing about the end of capitalism – telling them to consider finding a new political home.

Established in the past few days, Left Renewal’s stated aim is to bind its members in a formal faction system – something that the Greens have publicly rejected in the past.

The new group reflects the anger in a section of the New South Wales organisation over the direction of the party, some of whom have been engaged in a bitter dispute over preselections and policy influence.

The split is between those who believe the organisation who should stay as protest party and those who believe the Greens should move towards a party of government.

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“As workers, whether or not we are waged, we experience perpetual violence and this violence must be brought to an end. We therefore fight to bring about the end of capitalism.”

Di Natale described the overthrow of capitalism as a ridiculous notion and said the Greens’ policy platform had been established through a democratic grassroots process.

“The Greens have never had factions and, like the overwhelming majority of Greens members and voters, I will never support going down the Labor route of establishing formal factions within the party,” Di Natale said. “Of course the Greens do not support the overthrow of capitalism or any other ridiculous notions of the sort.

“Unfortunately, there is always a small minority in every political movement who are more concerned with infighting than with working together to advance agreed upon goals.

“If the authors of this ill-thought through manifesto are so unhappy with Greens policies, perhaps they should consider finding a new political home.”

The battle has spilled into the open recently because of the success of two candidates, Justin Field and Dawn Walker in recent NSW preselections who were not supported by the hard left.

At that time, Brown said the NSW Greens party was a “long-term disappointment”, which “lags right behind” and had consistently opposed simple party reforms that the public expected. He said Rhiannon was holding the party back.

“The incumbents in NSW – certainly that’s Lee in the Senate – have given great service but are not hitting a chord with the voters at the moment and we need to move on,” he told the ABC’s 7.30 program.

Rhiannon is currently returning from Germany and was unavailable for comment.

The Left Renewal is taking expressions of interest for membership, which will be decided via a collective decision making process.

None of its members have been named or confirmed as Greens members as yet and, when Guardian Australia asked for comment via Facebook from a spokesperson, the group messaged back, saying there was no individual spokesperson as they were a collective.

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But, in unsourced answers via Facebook, the group claimed to be rank and file members unaffiliated with any current or former MPs or senators. It said current and former MPs and senators were not eligible for membership at this stage.

The message claimed there was already a culture of factionalism in the Greens.

“We are a tendency within the Greens NSW which looks to return the party to its radical roots and away from the opportunistic push which places our party’s principles in jeopardy,” the message said.

“Left Renewal will operate within the factional setup that already exists within the Greens NSW. The party already has a culture of factionalism in its local group structure and among staffers in the NSW parliament.

“The difference is Left Renewal are being open about our goals and intentions, and engaging with transparent political concerns instead of double-speak about ‘unity’ that allows very few voices.”

The group invoked the “long history of socialism in Australia” in the foundations of both the Greens and the ALP “and across the world there is a revival in the form of Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, Iglesias’ Podemos and others”.

As well as calling for the end of capitalism, the group’s statement of principles calls for the end of artificial borders and global imperialism and it rejects consensus between business and environmental groups to work towards solutions on climate change.

It says: “Solutions to climate change cannot come from green-capital partnerships and top-down market solutions but must come from people organising in their workplaces and their communities.

“We thereby oppose consumer taxes, like ‘cap and trade’ mechanisms, and cross-class compromises with big business and capital.”